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"I am minded there are a couple of areas I want to take on in a recommendation 28 report.

"From the families' perspective, I cannot make recommendations, all I will be asking them (the Ministry of Defence) to do is look at it."

Mr Ridley said the MoD would respond to his concerns within 56 days, with the soldiers' families about to see the correspondence.

"It may be that some of the things I am asking have already been resolved and if that is the case, then great," said Mr Ridley.

A number of recommendations have been implemented following investigations into the deaths, the hearing was told.

Guidance to help establish whether a tent is in a safe condition has been incorporated into the Army Equipment Support Publication.

Colonel Gibson said the MoD had higher safety standards than other Nato nations, though its tents are fire retardant and not fire proof.

"We are practising to a higher standard of fire retardant than all other Nato nations," he said.

"If you move to a standard of fire proofing you would change a whole lot of other factors.

"A fire proof material is inevitably more logistically difficult, heavier, bulkier and less easy to put up and down, therefore less appropriate for expedition operations."

In British safety tests, tent material is allowed to burn for up to five seconds after a flame has been removed, Colonel Gibson said.

"The equivalent American standard allows far longer, 25 seconds as opposed to five seconds, after burn when the flame is removed," he said.

"It is a lower standard."

Ross Fenton, of the Defence Fire Risk Management Organisation, said accommodation used by British soldiers must now have two exits.

"There's a requirement for the exit to be readily available," he said.

Major Edward Cornes, a member of the Service Inquiry in relation to the incident, said it was not always practical for a strict protocol to be enforced when issuing equipment.

Equipment is usually issued through a quarter master who judges whether the person requesting it is "qualified, competent and responsible," he said.

But troops sometimes take out equipment under a "self-help" route, the inquest heard.

Major Cornes said: "There's a risk of circumnavigation of policy.

"Soldiers will be soldiers. In an arduous environment, people will always try to better their surroundings.

"There has to be a degree of common sense."

The inquest previously heard evidence the tent was not on Camp Bastion's asset register - a document kept by the Army and facilities contractor KBR listing all building and structures the US firm was responsible for.

But Colonel Nicholas Freeman, strategic head of the Defence Inquest Unit, said he had been informed the Army and KBR often advised each other of assets not listed.

"It was routine," Colonel Freeman said.

Pte Wood, known as Woody, had become a father to a boy, Noah, shortly before he died.

He was a driver port operator, posted to 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, and lived in Marchwood, Hampshire.

Pte Hutchinson, from Spennymoor, County Durham, was a driver and had seven years' service with the Army.

The inquest was adjourned until Thursday, when Mr Ridley will return his conclusions.